When the soul weakens faith enters. A case from which any army force in the world should take heed. IDF soldiers face the same issues that other armies do.
Israel Mandatory Draft Law
The Israel Security Service Law, or Defense Service Law, orders conscription into military service for men and women, citizens of Israel. Enacted in 1986, it consolidates the Security Service Act of 1949 and the Security Service Law 1959.
The draft age is 18-years-old; the law requires Israeli men to serve for 32 months, with some roles requiring an additional four months, and Israeli women for 24 months, with some roles requiring an additional eight months. After completing their active duty, citizens remain eligible for reserve duty until age 40.
Statistics from early 2024 indicate that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) consists of approximately: 42,000 career officers and soldiers, 170,000 active-duty draft soldiers and 465,000 reservists.
Due to ongoing conflicts there may be changes in policy and recruiting numbers: e.g., after October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel nearly 300,000 reservists were activated.
Soldiers’ Suicide Cases
Since October 7, 2023, after the Hamas attack on Israel, Israel has been at war on five fronts. This is a long war which Israel is not accustomed to.
In latest published news we read that several IDF soldiers have committed suicide and several more have attempted suicide. This publication received a great deal of attention in all of Israel’s media outlets, and politicians have also commented on the cases.
It should be mentioned here that in Israel generally the army and the media do not publish soldier suicide cases; it is not because they want to hide information from the public, but due to a possible Werther Effect*.
*The Werther Effect, which draws its name from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, which is said to have sparked imitative suicides after its publication, is the phenomenon of increased suicide rates following the publication or widespread dissemination of stories about suicide, particularly through media reports.
Essentially the concept of suicide contagion or copycat suicides whereby vulnerable individuals, identifying with the deceased or the circumstances surrounding their death, may be influenced to emulate suicidal behavior.
In other words, a kind of climate and social legitimacy is created to commit suicide. For people who are exposed to these publications, this option becomes part of their free choice basket.
The Israeli media immediately called the published suicide case a “suicide wave” and requested the IDF’s Human Resources Department (HRD) for suicide case data. The IDF HRD refused – and rightly so.
Anyone involved in the field of suicide knows that the more people talk about this phenomenon, the more it expands. But for the Israeli media, the issue of ethics and public responsibility has never been among their strong points.
The reason I am writing about this suicidal event, despite everything, is because it has already been published. More so, I also think that in such a situation it is necessary to provide an ideological vaccine for a serious phenomenon that may, God forbid, spread.
Treatment for Post-Traumatic Fighters
Fighters who experience traumatic combat reactions are in need of mind thought processing treatment. It is not enough to give them psychological processing treatment, which is certainly important, they also need spiritual processing. Spiritual processing is essentially understanding and internalizing the great significance of the event in which they took part.
The understanding that they are part of the people of Israel who are fighting an existential historical war; that they themselves are part of the fighting collective and not just some collection of individuals who are disconnected from each other.
Sometimes such process opens a wound from the past that the soldier did not know how to close; it is possible that the current discourse also deals with superficial matters, such as where the commander of the platoon or class was at a certain time, or similar dry information, which is of course part of the processing case.
But all this is not enough; the fighters need processing with meaning.
In his best-selling book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning,’ Viktor Frankl used the phrase, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how,” attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche, the German philosopher and cultural critic whose work greatly influenced Western philosophy and intellectual history.
Seeking Meaning
So what is the meaning about which Frankl wrote?
Generally, every person needs and therefore seeks meaning in his or her life, which can also change throughout one’s life. Every nation also needs its own national meaning. In the tradition of the people of Israel, meaning is the ‘why,’ from which the people draw their strength.
For example, after a difficult combat event in which a group of blessed warriors who fell in the war in Gaza, all the unit’s warriors should meet with a mental health officer (MHO); because mental health officers play a major role in the warriors’ resilience. Rabbis are also responsible for giving soldiers resilience. And together this is what ultimately gives the warriors strength and resilience.
Case in Point
What is meant is: a fighter-soldier lost his platoon’s commander who was killed next to him in battle while they were in their tank. As a result, he is unable to free himself from guilt feelings that he could have saved his commander. The warrior has already spoken at length with a Mental Health Officer (MHO) and received the professional treatment to help him. Nonetheless, he or she feels the need to talk to a religious figure. But according to the Jewish religion, the Creator of the world, not a person, manages the reality. What is more, there is no doubt that the warrior has no responsibility in the case and therefore should bear no guilt for this event. What happened had to happen and should be looked at, that it is for the better too.
Therefore, despite the laws of religion, if a religious figure sat with this soldier and talked with him until the heavy burden he placed on himself was removed from his heart, it would free him from the feelings of guilt that have accumulated in his soul.
Destructive Clichés With Political Classification
In Israel the political-Left has proved itself destructive to the war effort.
One thing certainly does not help, which is telling fighters that their comrades are fighting or have died in vain on the “altar of the survival of the right-wing coalition government.” Irresponsible politicians who do not understand the consequences of their words and actions use such clichés.
Not only do such avowals not help, they might make the fighters feel that they and their participation in the war is meaningless. Such statements increase the mental and emotional injury in those in whom they already exist while they may also awaken latent feelings of which the soldier is unaware.
USA Military Open Communication Line
The US military has an open line of communication for a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with clergy. Although, and to distinguish, in this example it is about something other than the Judaism religion, e.g., a soldier of the Christian religion. No matter what, Israel must learn from the non-Jewish people who understand that the army has a great need for spirituality.
And here it should be noted that in the US military, Jewish rabbis are given similar status in assisting Jewish soldiers – perhaps non-Jewish ones too? The US military reminds every soldier that he deserves and the state owes him the right to speak with a spiritual person.
Articles on the U.S. Army website discuss how chaplains provide spiritual and practical techniques to help soldiers cope with whatever situation they have.
These techniques often focus on building spiritual readiness and resilience, which are viewed as crucial components of the Army’s Holistic Health and Fitness doctrine, among which is to develop a sense of purpose and meaning by exploring their beliefs and values leading the soldiers to find motivation and perseverance even in challenging situations.
At the end of the article, a hotline telephone number, available 24/7, is provided.
How Does the IDF Differ From the US Army?
Why is there no such service within the IDF? It is possible, perhaps of course, that if this were to happen, the radical leftist organizations, the extreme secularists, would immediately shout “religion” and accuse the military rabbis of religious coercion on the soldiers and all kinds of other such grievances, typical to them
In practice however, most of the IDF is traditionally Jewish, and most of its soldiers draw strength and meaning from the Jewish people’s Judaica and tradition. Judaism also gives soldiers motivation to enlist and fight, and if, God forbid, a soldier suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, it can give him the strength to cope.
Sometimes, due to fear and apprehension, contact with the Holy Torah and Judaism is prevented in Israel from those who need it most, to the point of preventing spiritual healing that exists in the armies of other nations.
Although this denial of required spirituality does not officially exist in the IDF, the only Jewish army in the world, it exists below the surface.
Israel must free itself from these false fears so that it can take care of the IDF soldiers’ righteousness who need the Jewish tradition – which is an existential matter for the nation, the soul, and the strength of the Jewish people.
